EYE OF THE STORM by Kate Messner

A.R. Book Level:  4.8
A.R. Points: 10.0
Pages:  292

Eye of the Storm is a real page-turner: there’s a monster tornado on the very first page, and it only gets wilder from there.  Jaden is a girl who has grown up in a future world where global warming has caused our regular weather patterns to morph into killer super-storms.  People can only leave their homes for short periods of time and must carry a Data Slate (like a future iPad) to warn them about sudden dangerous weather.  They live their lives constantly looking at the sky and trying to guess how much time they have to get to the nearest “safe room.”  This all changes for Jaden when she goes to spend the summer with her dad in his “storm-free community,” where residents pay big bucks for the promise that they’ll never have bad weather.  As Jaden learns about the technology surrounding this town, she starts to unearth some disturbing secrets.  Readers who love survival stories and who have exhausted my supply of Lauren Tarshis’ I Survived books will want to pick up this one.

THE SEARCH FOR WONDLA by Tony DiTerlizzi

A.R. Book Level: 5.2
A.R. Points: 11.0
Pages: 477

Maybe because it's enormous, or maybe because the cover art is just kind of lame-looking, it took me a year to pick this up off the shelf, and all that time I was missing out on a really good piece of science fiction.  DiTerlizzi, the author of the SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES series, tells the story of Eva Nine, a twelve-year-old girl who had spent her entire life living underground in a teched-up Sanctuary with her robot caretaker, M.u.t.h.r. (Multi-Utility Task Help Robot), training to one day go to the surface and search for other humans.  After a major catastrophe, Eva does find herself on the surface, alone--and the planet she's on is COMPLETELY different from the one in her training!  Pursued by a ruthless hunter and befriended by a strange blue creature, Eva goes on a quest to save herself and to find another member of her species.  This book has everything a science fiction lover could want: creepy creatures, carnivorous plants, advanced technology (yes, there's a hover car!), and plenty of action.  I adored it, and a big secret revealed at the end makes me itch to read a sequel!

AMONG THE HIDDEN by Margaret Peterson Haddix

A.R. Book Level: 4.8
A.R. Points: 5.0
Pages: 153

When I try to think of my most suspenseful books in the library, Among the Hidden always comes to mind.  Every moment of Luke's life is suspenseful because he shouldn't be alive, and no one can know he was ever born.  He lives in constant fear of being caught.  The setting of this book is a future where the human race has lived through a devastating famine and where the government has ruled that families are only allowed to have two children so that there's enough food for everyone.  Luke is the third child in his family, and his entire life must be a secret so that he doesn't get taken away by the Population Police.  He is a prisoner in his own house until new neighbors move next door and Luke's life changes dramatically.  The ending wasn't the most satisfying one I've ever read, but hey--the author has six more great books in the series to make up for it!

THE CLOCKWORK THREE by Matthew Kirby

A.R. Book Level: 4.5
A.R. Points: 15.0
Pages: 391

At almost 400 pages, this book is enormous, and I’ll be the first to say that the story’s not usually fast-paced or exciting.  It’s a long book, a slow-reading book, and a book that is very subtle as it gradually unfolds the plot.  That being said, if you’re willing to commit the time and effort to reading this, it will be well worth it.  Set sometime during the industrial revolution, this is the intertwining story of three unfortunate kids: Giuseppe, a boy forced to earn money by playing music in the street; Frederick, an orphan who aspires to become a great clockmaker; and Hannah, a girl who must work to support her family since her father had a stroke.  If you liked the automaton in Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret or the idea of kids on the wrong side of the law in Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord, and you’re ready for a more challenging book, this is the one for you.